The Alyona Show: Football vs. Futbol

Published time: 11 Jun, 2010 17:00 Edited time: 14 Jun, 2010 17:33

Football or Futbol? That is the question. While Americans love to bask in the glory of the NFL every fall, the rest of the world lives for soccer, or what they call futbol. And with the World Cup starting today, what better opportunity to see the immigrant community preparing for the most glorious sporting event on earth? RT LA Correspondent Ramon Galindo joins Alyona with the story.

People have been speculating as to whether or not the special relationship between the US and the UK is on the rocks since the second Obama stepped into office. And sure there was a little harsh language, a few snubs here and there....but now it seems serious. While the American people and mainstream media have been asking Obama to get angry, the English are asking him to lay off BP. Maybe the fact that so many of their pension funds are tied up in those shares has something to do with it....Or maybe it's just a matter of pride, all leading up to the big game between England and the US tomorrow. RT Correspondent Kristine Frazao has the story.

Then, how much does art influence politics? If you remember that Hope poster with Obama's face on it that was plastered all over the country during the 2008 presidential campaign....you might say a lot. But what if the art comes from a man known as Dan Lacey, the pancake painter? Lacey painted an image of Orly Taitz, the Moldovan dentist and lawyer that most Americans know as the ‘birther queen,' giving birth to a pancake. So now Taitz has subpoenaed Lacey to give up the name of the person that commissioned this painting, because she believes they did it to intimidate her. Orly Taitz herself joins Alyona to discuss.

Later, the Supreme Court made a decision that some would call another huge blow to campaign finance laws, barring three candidates in Arizona from receiving matching funds from the public finance system. Thanks to a public bribery scandal, Arizona enacted a law in 1998 that said that if one candidate in a state election decides to forego public funding in order to seek large private donations, the other candidates become entitled to additional matching funds. Conservatives claimed this limited their right to free speech by giving them a motivation to limit their private spending. So thanks to Tuesday's decision, three candidates now do not have the public financing they were depending on to make it to November, including Governor Jan Brewer. And one very wealthy millionaire candidate is still free to spend at will. So is that fair? Or is this Supreme Court just making it even more apparent that rich people will rule America? Alyona talks to Radio Host Thom Hartmann and first asks him if he thought this was another fatal blow to campaign finance laws.

Finally, we've been discussing the World Cup all day, and we still can't figure out why every country in the world considers this the greatest sporting event.....except for America. Alyona tests some interesting theories she heard on Matt and Peter Slutsky, founders of DoubleSpeak Media.